Messages

what is the patchbay on the front for? And I think 400mA won't do it with that number of pcbs effects.

No it won't   I'd never built a power supply before, so this is really just a stop-gap.  I have some bigger transformers to build another linear supply, but am also investigating building my own "quiet"/low-ripple switching supply as my next project.   The patchbay is so I can run the ins/outs of each pedal to the front panel in a re-configurable way.  Right now most of them are just daisy-chained in the rear, but I have my drive pedals on a different chain than the delays.  I had considered mounting the I/O on the pedal faceplates but decided against it to save space and reduce visible cable clutter.

Thanks guys!  I'd probably do a few things different on the switcher board but not much.  I really appreciate you all taking the time to check it out.

[Modular Guitar Pedal Rack with MIDI Switching]

After building a few pedals, I grew tired of the growing cable mess and never want to spray paint again.  I decided to build a rack unit to house all my pedals in a tidy configuration.  So, I designed a relay switcher board to handle switching with a face mounted momentary switch.  The units are all daisy-chained together as slaves on an I2C bus and can be switched with a single master Arduino (with a PCB shield I designed) via MIDI or USB from a PC.  I thought you guys might be interested in checking it out   The link is to the imgur album with descriptions of the build process.

Modular Guitar Pedal Rack with MIDI Switching

Thank you everyone!  As for the diodes I used, just red LEDs and the 1N914 in the instructions.  I think they both sound pretty killer.  No guts photos, I managed to get it all crammed in there and working, now it can never be opened again

I wanted to build the Rat because I have so many digital versions of it and I wanted to A/B them.  I'm trying to upgrade my rig thoughtfully and DIY analog drive flavors seemed like a good starting point.  Maybe it goes without saying, but the modeled versions pale in comparison to this pedal.  I needed to prove that to my own ears.

A question for the pedal experts here... I've tried this through a small SS combo and my Vox AD60VTX modeling hybrid amp.  Since I play exclusively at low volumes, I've pretty much written off power tube distortion and that lead me to building pedals.  I'd like to bypass my Vox's digital modeling preamp and was thinking of mating an Orange Micro Dark tube-preamp with my Vox SS/Tube power amp (via FX loops) with drive pedals on the front end.  Thoughts?

Thanks!  I'm a quiet one, but I hope to get to know of few of the pros around here over time.

This is my first pedal build and was fortunate to have it fire up on the first try.  I won't show the guts because it is not a pretty sight.  I learned a LOT and am totally hooked.  I plan to build a test rig next with some breadboards and start experimenting with different circuits.  SO COOL!